Friday, July 16, 2010

Kerrzy's Notebook: Random Friday Thoughts

The Favre Files

Now that we’ve got LeBron James out of the way, it’s time to question the future of another pro athlete – who else, but Brett Favre.

With training camp coming up, it’s time for the Favre watch to really crank into high gear…but don’t expect an answer anytime soon from the guy who is notorious for not liking the whole ‘training camp’ process.

The latest is that he wants to come back, but it’s really up to his surgically repaired ankle. Favre told ESPN this week that he hoped his ankle would be a bit better by now, eight weeks after his surgery, but that he would “love to play and be the best [he] can possibly be.”

“When you wake up in the morning and your feet hurt it kind of makes the rest of your body hurt. And if you’ve been sacked 700 times that usually adds to it.”

Earlier this week he was singing a slightly different tune, telling a magazine “playing another year probably isn’t going to make a difference,” as far as his health goes.

Get to used to this for the next couple of weeks folks…and thank LeBron James that this is the first we’re really hearing about it!

The Power of Twitter

Here’s a interesting story from the world of Twitter – the ever controversial (or at least headline-grabbing) Chad Ochocinco got people talking last weekend with a few choice tweets.

The Cincinnati Bengals receiver was coaching a team in the “Entertainer’s Basketball Classic” at Harlem’s Rucker Park on Saturday. That night he decided to hit the town, and what followed involves a fight with a bouncer, Starbucks with the NYPD and “cranberry n red bull”:

Perhaps “the Ocho” should try and use the power of Twitter to help out his boy T.O. land a job…

Terrell Owens was with Ochocinco at that basketball tournament all weekend and took some time to vent a little bit about the reputation he’s got around the league as a “troublemaker.”

“Some of the gold boys that they kind of highlight throughout the course of the season, those are the guys that are getting in trouble [off the field]. Somehow I get lumped into those topics, which blows my mind. I’ve never been in any trouble. I know right from wrong. I try to make the right choices and judgments when I’m out in the public.”

Owens is obviously referring to guys like Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger with those comments – Big Ben has faced some serious allegations this off-season, but has managed to avoid having any charges go through. Apart from him, there are tons of NFLers getting into trouble for one thing or another on any given week.

With T.O., the problem isn’t the off-field stuff though – it’s the sideline spats with teammates and such over the course of his career that might have some GM’s wondering if they should take the risk. Or maybe it’s his stats – 55 catches for 829 yards and five touchdowns.

“It’s almost like I didn’t play last year…It’s not like I can’t play. There is some type of influence that they’re making on the minds of teams and owners and GMs.”

Whatever the case, Owens says he’ll be ready to play as soon as someone signs him – and I’m sure they will. It’s interesting to see how a bad reputation can follow a guy though…

Nuts and Bolts

The World’s Fastest Man won’t have The London Eye on him at next month’s Crystal Palace Diamond League meeting – and organizers can blame the taxman.

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt decided to skip the London meet because the money wasn’t right – it’s not that they weren’t going to pay him what he wanted, but his agent told him he would actually lose money by competing!

How could he lose money, you ask? His agent Ricky Simms says that in Britain, foreign sports stars have to pay taxes on their worldwide endorsements – which he says is pushing more and more big stars in other sports away from Britain. So, if I understand this correctly – Bolt would be taxed on the money he’s making from every sponsor he has, even though he’s just there running a race and then leaving?

Seems fishy, but don’t worry track fans – the rules don’t apply for the Olympics, which are in London in 2012.

The Waiting Game

Okay – so I’m starting to think we will never see Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I’m also starting to wonder if “Money” Mayweather really wants the fight in the first place. Initially when talks broke down, it was because Pacquiao wouldn’t agree to stiffer drug tests than any boxing commission in the land, which included blood being drawn within two weeks of the fight.

Since then, his camp relented and Pacquiao agreed to the conditions (even though it’s a moot point because the Nevada commission said no to blood tests and that’s likely where the fight would be held).

Now, we await the response from Mayweather’s camp. They’ve got until the end of the day today to agree to a deal, otherwise Pacquiao says his camp will start to look for other opponents (Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto).

It would be a real shame for the sport of boxing if this fight doesn’t happen – lets be honest, the average person doesn’t care about boxing like they used to back in the glory days. This is a fight that would put the sport back at the forefront even if we're only talking about a few weeks of front-page headlines.

After all the smack talk about steroids from the Mayweather camp, we better see a damn fight!

Celebrate Good Times…Come On!

Did you know that post-goal celebrations actually increase your chances of winning a game?

It may not actually be true, but that was the finding of sports scientists in the Netherlands, published in the Journal of Sports Science (what do they say about jump-kicking opponents, I wonder?).

According to the New Zealand Herald, the researchers found that the “teams with the most exuberant celebrations were more likely to win,” studying goal celebrations during penalty shootouts.

Dr. Gert-Jan Pepping says the enthusiastic behavior of a good old-fashioned celebration gives the rest of the team a positive attitude.

This study is actually kind of funny – Players who looked down after scoring were more likely to be on the losing team.

If a player celebrated by gesturing with both arms, rather than one, the following kicker from the other team was twice as likely to miss.

Come on. Let that be a lesson to you – celebrate with both hands!

Speaking of celebrations…here is a video of all 145 goals from the World Cup (until it’s taken down by someone).

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Who the heck is Kerrzy?

Kerrzy is a Canadian, sports-loving journalist who loves to dish opinion on all things funny, sporty, serious and...well, you get the picture.
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